**Welcome** to the wikispace for the Tikipunga Gifted Kids Unit and the Northern Wairoa Gifted Kids Centre. On this site you will find kids' work, photos of the kids working, newsletters, information, trip notices, competitions, resources and much more. This is our way of bringing the GKP classroom to you so that you may see the work the kids are undertaking. Please take time to enjoy all that the wiki has to offer.*

Northern Wairoa SPCA

SPCA Tikipunga Group

Tikipunga Museum Trip

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Northern Wairoa SPCA

On June 21st the Dargaville kids visited the SPCA and
the Northland Native Bird Recovery Centre. Both trips
were amazing and the kids werefantastic! Of course
they all wanted to take home an animal!!

Here are some photos of the Northern Wairoa kids,
taken by Laura:

The next stop was the Native Bird Recovery Centre where
the kids were able to stroke a real kiwi and learn about
looking after our native and endemic species. One of the
tuis speaks so clearly and like an old man! He says things
like, "How's your cold?" "My best mate Terry is cool!" They
then learnt about birds such as the albatross and petrels,
and what to do if you discover an injured bird.

Here are the Northern Wairoa kids on their visit:

SPCA Tikipunga Group

After initially having to postpone our trip to the SPCA
and Native Bird Recovery Centre because of bad weather,
we finally managed to get there. The Tikipunga kids had
an extra surprise when they visited the Bird Recovery
Centre, as Robert had an injured harrier hawk that he had
saved, to release back into the wild whilst they were there.
They were all able to not only stroke a kiwi but were also
able to stroke the hawk before it was released and it flew
off over the valley. A very, very special moment.

These photos were taken by Anna and Brady from the
Friday group and Chloe from the Thursday group:

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NW Museum Trip

We had an amazing day at Kiwi North, the museum at Whangarei.
Pippa, the education officer, was fantastic and the kids learnt
about cogs, wedges, cams and others. We also learnt about Pi and
how that came about. It was a hands-on day and the kids were kept
busy all day learning. The day ended with a trip on the old train
through Millington's Bush. The kiwi in the kiwi house were not
active today and all we saw of them was their bottom on the webcam!
The photos were taken by many of the kids.

To see the captions
or to pause the slideshow, just put your mouse over the
picture and to slow the photos down or speed them up
click the + or - buttons under the slideshow.

Tikipunga Museum Trip

Another amazing day at the museum. Again the kids had hands-on
activities that taught them about wheels, cogs, cams, wedges and
pulleys. The whole day was a discovery day. Pippa does not "tell"
them the answers but always encourages the kids to think about
the question and discover the answer. There was more time today
to spend a longer session in the kiwi house, and we were very lucky
that the kiwi was active and feeding when we went in there. Pippa
was also amazing in being able to adjust her programme to talk
about how certain parts of technology have stayed the same and
how some have changed. Perfect!

Here are the photos taken by the kids: